UK Politics

LooseCannon said:
I worry that the end state of Brexit is a xenophobic fear that important decisions are being made by teams of diplomats that, en masse, aren't English. That an important distinction, because the Welsh and Scots, especially, are used to the feeling that their bureaucratic decisions are undertaken by those of a different diaspora.
Click to expand...

When you hear clowns like Boris use phrases that Britain will be a "colony" or a "vassal state", it illustrates how deluded these pricks are.
 
srfc said:
When you hear clowns like Boris use phrases that Britain will be a "colony" or a "vassal state", it illustrates how deluded these pricks are.
Click to expand...

Boris is the biggest clown of all, no doubt about that. The problem is that he is an educated manipulative clown and hence uses a language to inflame certain sentiments.
 
Brigantium said:
I'd have a lot more sympathy with the Brexit camp if it prioritised sensible solutions for specific issues and preached leaving the EU as secondary or complementary to that. Like, for example, what decisions and policies have they specifically disagreed with, and could it be done a better way for the general good of the population (and not purely to benefit the critics personally)?
Click to expand...

So true...
 
The growth of European unity was aggressive until people who were around during WW2 began to exit the public sphere, almost as if institutional knowledge of the dangers of European disparity has been lost in the upper echelons of various European nations.
 
LooseCannon said:
The growth of European unity was aggressive until people who were around during WW2 began to exit the public sphere, almost as if institutional knowledge of the dangers of European disparity has been lost in the upper echelons of various European nations.
Click to expand...

That is debatable. If I am not mistaken, 16 members have joined since 1995, i.e. 50 years or more after WW2 ended.
 
GhostofCain said:
That is debatable. If I am not mistaken, 16 members have joined since 1995, i.e. 50 years or more after WW2 ended.
Click to expand...
So the people who were running those countries were kids during the war and it was part of their formative memories.
 
LooseCannon said:
So the people who were running those countries were kids during the war and it was part of their formative memories.
Click to expand...

Perhaps in the case of Finland, Sweden and Austria (joined in 1995), but quite probably not for all the remaining 11 members that have joined in the 21st century, when the expansion has been arguably more significant than during the 80s and 90s.
 
It's also only Britian likely to leave, so I wouldn't overstate the change in attitudes. And Britain was never really committed either way.
 
LooseCannon said:
the Welsh and Scots, especially, are used to the feeling that their bureaucratic decisions are undertaken by those of a different diaspora.
Click to expand...
This is a point I nearly mentioned earlier but didn't bother in the end. Objecting to cultural and political (as well as actual) distance between voters and decision makers is taking the pee when this has been the situation with Westminster and the rest of Britain for so long. Even various parts of England don't sing from the same hymn sheet as Westminster, but are told to just get on with it because that's how it is. A growing feeling of disenfranchisement is still fairly new for much of England, though, where the bulk of the Leave vote came from. That's got a lot to do increasing complexity and changing face of the (world) economy, loss of industry/business, and increasingly City-centric focus, though.

Xenophobia is a strong word. While I think there is some of that bubbling under the surface, it's probably also the case that it's seen as convenient to draw a line at the national boundary for paring back on what's considered to be excesses. What I really don't like is the manipulation of both nationalism and popular discord by various figures for their own ends, like Boris as mentioned above, and Farage. People banging on about independence and likening leaving the EU to American independence.
 
The funny thing about Farage is that his first wife was Irish and the second one German yet he is happy to manipulate nationalist views whichever way suits his agenda!
 
There's definitely a phenomenon there. I've met several politicians who were big on nationalism, critical of immigration, and all had foreign wives or partners. I can think of another very high profile politician this applies to, too.
 
GhostofCain said:
The funny thing about Farage is that his first wife was Irish and the second one German yet he is happy to manipulate nationalist views whichever way suits his agenda!
Click to expand...

That doesn't stop people from being idiots. Look at Trump, his wife is an immigrant, yet flies high on a nationalist/populist agenda.
 
Let's get one thing straight - Melania is irrelevant because she's not the type of immigrant these people hate. They hate poor immigrants, not rich ones (trophy wives included)
 
Zare said:
Let's get one thing straight - Melania is irrelevant because she's not the type of immigrant these people hate. They hate poor immigrants, not rich ones (trophy wives included)
Click to expand...

The same people would refer to rich immigrants as ex-pats...

Anyway, Donald Trumpf (as that was his German grandfather's surname) is descendant of German immigrants, isn't he?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top